Misfortune and Bonds
by truepeluche
Summary: Kamijou Touma has always been plagued with bad luck, but recently somehting has changed, he feels lighter, maybe having help to carry his burdens isn't such a bad idea... Rated M for Accelerator's language and Index happy themes I'll try to update every Sunday
1. Prologue: Misfortune begins

Prologue : Or misfortune begins

July 12; Kamijou Touma was running late. It was a beautiful day out with the sun that had been burning the streets of Academy City all day which was starting to disappear between the buildings. It was the worst time for him to be doing any kind of physical exercise. However broke student's budget was his everyday reality and it demanded him to expend as little as possible on things like food, bills and other. With that in mind, the sales on precious pasta -the best friend of any students who wasn't attending at Tokiwadai- were essential for his budget gymnastics.

What all of his planning hadn't accounted for was his phone displaying the wrong hour, the public transport malfunctioning and his neighbor, Tsuchimikado Maika, asking for him to help her with math homework. Why the local sis-con sergeant couldn't do it was beyond Touma's comprehension.

With these three factor in mind, one could only wonder if it was possible for the student to reach the store in time. Quick math based on the distance google maps displayed and his average running speed told him that he could make it fifteen minutes before the store closed if he didn't encountered any more misfortune.

Just by thinking that, Touma had tempted Fate with a capital F who answered even faster than Clint Eastwood drawing his revolver. That answer came in the form of a screamed rant.

Now Touma's hearing didn't allow him to understand clearly what the screaming party was saying but the voice, tone and snippets of a colorful vocabulary reminded him strongly of the many times he had to deal with delinquents.

While our protagonist had the possibility of walking away and ignoring whoever was about to take a beating existed, it was as much of a possibility as committing such crime in the first place. His mindset, upbringing, principles weren't letting him consider even thinking about such options.

"Such misfortune !" he exclaimed as he bid his precious pasta friend goodbye before rushing toward the alleyway the screaming came from.

In there he could see roughly twenty thugs, almost all armed or displaying an ability confronting a lone palen scrawny boy dressed in black. One particularly tall delinquent who seemed to be their leader was stepping out of the mass of petty criminals pointing a crowbar with his right hand and brandishing a fire ball in his left one. He could be heard shouting loudly.

"If we beat your sorry ass, everybody in District seven will know better than to mess with me and my boys. You see, you piece of shit, it's not against you. In fact I'll be nice enough not to kill you and just beat the shit out of you if you beg for your life right now." Touma felt his blood boil at those comments while the other boy remained incredibly passive.

"Hey you bastard, did it ever occur to you that if you keep on getting in fights, you'll end up biting more than you can chew." Touma had already approached the leader and was now roughly ten meter away from the crowbar wielding lunatic. The taller man smiled manically before throwing his left hand forward alongside the fireball in it.

"I'm not the one putting my nose where it doesn't belong." And with a scream, the ball of fire approached the high school student who simply rose his right hand to intercept it.

Now were anyone else stupid enough to try it, they would simply receive third degree burn to their hand. Dodging or using something like a slab of concrete as a shield were more viable tactics. However Touma -like all respectable protagonist nowadays- possessed a unique ability. It was only located within his right hand but it allowed him to negate any supernatural ability. From laser beams to electricity to of course fireball. So with a sound of glass, the ball simply ceased to exist and alongside it the esper's confidence in his ability.

"We're here to t-take on that monster beside you, if, if you don't get away right now, you'll see why he has already given up." Instead of following the order delivered by the shaky voice of his opponent, Touma simply lunged forward and closed seven meters before his opponent could respond.

Unfortunately -heh- his opponents didn't remained stunned long enough and he brought his crowbar up. Touma simply crouched and blocked the hit. he thanked the other guy's inexperience. Holding out his weapon so far away and striking upwards made him unable to build any real weight and his hit would leave Touma with only a small bruising.

Once close Touma delivered an uppercut with his right hand that pushed the grunting delinquent a few centimeters off the ground before his fall was broken by a wall. The man was left concussed and out cold.

The other men behind him started to rush toward Touma. While the narrow alley didn't allow them to rush at twenty on one, even fighting three of them was hard to pull off outside of fiction.

A fist came to his right and a bat to his left. The spiky haried boy's reflexes kicked in and his arms burned as they blocked both. The student immediately swung his fists but his enemies had already retreated further in the alley.

Touma could feel himself get hit once again at the legs and arms while he successfully avoided major hits on his more vulnerable points like stomach, lung or head. Simple footwork allowed him to draw one enemy a little bit further than the other and a sucker punch to the guts had him sprawling atop of his boss

"We'll fucking kill you." He answered with pushing down a trash bin to regain a bit of stamina and distance before his assailants rushed toward him again or rather past him as they tried to surround the local good-doer.

"Shit, you guys are sure you don't want to leave us alone" he knew quipping was making him more breathless but it helped with morale.

He took a hit to the back from what seemed to be a metal bar which had him feeling incredible pain. He answered by simply slamming one of his opponent against the wall before counting down.

"One two three ARGH FUCK" He immediatly counted once more in his head. When he reached three Touma sidestepped. the man behind him stumbled as he lunged forward before being grabbed in the back and slammed toward his allies while he took deep breaths.

"This is Judgement, you're all under arrest. Please drop your weapon and surrender. You've all been identified so running won't do any help" On the other side of the alley stood two girls, a middle school student with pigtails and whose school uniform he recognized but couldn't remember where from. Alongside her the other one was taller and she might have been in high school. A pair of glasses stood on her nose and gave her a serious air. They were part of the student run organization tasked with peacekeeping in the streets of Academy City.

Touma gladly executed the order as he took a few steps away from the delinquents. His previous opponents focused their attention on the new arrivals. What Kamijou knew about Judgement was that they never were here when he needed them -poor pastas-. But they tended to have either fearsome abilities or important physical and combat training when they didn't had both. So it was not so much surprise to him when both girls started to either teleport or use martial arts to wreak havoc on the crowd of thugs who were starting to collapse and run away.

He tried to turn toward the boy who had been targeted by the delinquents but this one had disappeared during the commotion.

"Such misfortune." In under a minutes all delinquents and Touma had been handcuffed. Once that was done they were dragged toward the peudo police station, He addressed a last farewell to his student meals.

"Rest in peperoni" And just like that they all arrived to a nearby school. They were shoved in a small room guarded by the Judgement officer with the pigtails while a single delinquent was dragged into a tiny office.

A few minutes passed and, one by one, their testimonies were being taken in another passed. After all delinquents had passed once in the room, Touma had his name called and therefore, he entered the small room.

In there sitting behind a desk and typing on a computer was a petite girl with a flowery headband and a rather annoyed expression. That expression was matched by her colleague with the glasses.

"So what were you doing in that alley?" She didn't bothered with things like his age, or the school he went to and the fact that she had known his name despite him never introducing himself was saying a lot.

"Well, I've heard someone yelling and cussing at someone else. I went to see what was happening and there was the group of delinquent harassing a dude. I asked to lay it off, they didn't and decided that I'd be a nice target. We fought until you guys arrived at the scene." Headband girl showed a intrigued expression before turning toward glasses girl who simply nodded.

"Why did you help that person ?" Touma gave a puzzled expression. It was decent, something anyone would do. It was even easier to understand for someone of Judgement who literally did that as their job.

"Wouldn't you? Wouldn't anyone do that, I mean it's normal…" Again headband girl turned an incredulous expression toward her colleague. Glasses girl simply gave a weak nod while she sported the same expression.

"Is there anything else I can do to help…" The headband girl snapped toward him and before hesitating for a while answered.

"Well not exactly, we might need to contact you later. Also some of the witnesses claim to have seen you use an ability that they estimated at level 3 or more against them is that true ?" Touma frowned at the accusation before shrugging.

"I'm just a level zero, the system scan has me at the very bottom of what abilities can do. As for my contact, can I write my number down?" he had recently changed his phone but his misfortune had taught him to perfectly memorize his number the second he knew it.

"Of course there. You should be able to go home now." Both girl smiled and he was handed a piece of paper on which to write his number name and address. And just like that it was the end of this misfortunate incident

Or so he thought

**And we're done with the prologue, I like the To aru-verse but like the MCU I feel like there's too much contrivance that keep amazing character from butting in each other's business so I want to have more interactions between the different factions (mostly of good guys) and part of the cast and to make it the easiest possible, I'll center it around the Kamijou Faction and its leader, so I hope you guys will enjoy this little story**

**Also I figured that Konori's ability could be used to check things like heart movement, making her a living lie detector, she could get false positive if a suspect is stressed enough but it helps her with things like reports since she could get a general idea of who's telling the truth, it's not mentioned in either railgun or index but I think that's something she should be able to do.**

**Also I don't know if I should go with the Railgun anime canon that shows the 177th building as a small station on the street or the Index novel that puts it inside of Saten and Uhiaru's middle school, so give me your opinions on it in the reviews.**


	2. Chapter 1: Bonding begins

**On reviews **

**Fencer29 : I'll go with your proposition and kinda look for a balance between railgun's canon (aka Judgement is its own self-sustained organization that does investigations and battle AIM bursts) and Index that states Judgement is Anti-Skill's lackey; that way we'll get the squads rushing towards problems and the underlying pression of we can't talk too much about the magic-side/AC's dark side**

**Majin Othinus : Thanks for the positive feedback, For the length I'll try to get 3k words min but like I said I'll do my best to try and upload once a week. I won't lie to you and say that I already know how the romantic ends are going to be tied but I'll wrap it up waaay before WWIII so, sorry no OTP (if I don't choose the sadistic route and kill whoever I paired him with before best goddess reach godhood) **

**Now to the story**

July 14th. Two days after the incident Touma had mostly forgotten about what happened. And he had therefore no precaution taken to deflect any later fallout from his fight.

Needless to say he was caught off-guard when his PE teacher had dragged him out of one of his remedial classes in her office.

Yomikawa was a tall well-built woman with an impressive… impressively long hair. However what most students knew her for was that she was ruthless in her teaching of physical education and a member of Anti-Skill, academy's other law enforcement structure composed mainly of teachers. So having her drag Touma out of the classroom in the beggining of the afternoon could mean really bad things.

"Please sensei, explain why this poor Kamijou had to be dragged out of class." The image of her lifting Aogami by the collar before shaking him until the pervert fell unconscious was still very fresh in Touma's mind.

"Well It's about the other day, when you got in a scuffle with delinquents. An ex-student of mine contacted me in order to know if I could convince you to join Judgement. Since this school's branch has a serious shortage of staff and you regularly try to solve everyone's problem anyway, it'd just in this school making it official." Touma sweated nervously at the direction the conversation had taken. It wasn't that Yomikawa's words were wrong. He was the kind of guy who would help get cats off trees, guide lost children and try to stop violent conflict when it happened around him

But actively seeking and being consulted to resolve problematic situations wasn't something that looked appealing to him. Especially when he didn't had the time to deal with general bouts of bad luck, studies and Delta Force shenanigans taking up most of his days.

"It would take me four months to complete judgement formation. You should focus on people who are almost finished or things like that." Just as he thought he managed to run away, Yomikawa's smile grew wide.

"Don't worry if you have four letters of recommendation you can formed while going on the terrain in parallel. You'll just need to be tested and monitored by a Senior Ant-skill member." Touma's argument had been gravely injured by his teacher's rhetoric but she had yet to drive the final nail in its coffin.

"Oh and if it can help to motivate you, you'll get a better scholarship. Your ability don't look like it's going anywhere so if you don't want to live all your student life completely broke it's better for you to join." She had heard his daily complaints about his shitty financial situation and turned it against him. Never had he been dealt such a low blow by one of his teacher. With the biggest sigh he could manage he caved in.

"Fine, it's not like I have any chance of succeeding the exam anyway." Yomikawa grinned as she pulled a sheet out of a drawer.

"Don't be such a downer, I'm sure you'll ace it." What Yomikawa didn't knew was how right yet wrong she would turn out to be.

First was the written exam. It was a series of protocol question destined to evaluate whether the trainee would be able to induce the protocol for various situations before being formally taught it.

Fortunately -what a surprise- Touma had been in a lot of different accidents with both Judgement and Anti-skill. The boy thanked his good memory that had allowed him to remember how the officers had dealt with him or other suspects. Even if the variety and subtlety of the possible responses had his head spinning, he nevertheless managed to answer every question in the thirty minutes he had been given.

While he had done better than expected in his written exam, the hard part surprisingly came from the physical side of the examination.

Now Touma was rather fit, even a little bit athletic. Thus he would have breezed through this kind of thing normally. However The examination had been done by Yomikawa who wanted him to have the best possible grade. The red running track she had placed him on was her own personal domain and she ruled over it with an iron fist.

She probably intended to help Touma, but considering that he had yet to completely heal from a brawl with the Delta Force it felt like she was a torture enthusiast venting off her urges on a defenseless student. In order to "motivate" him to run more laps for the endurance test she was pursuing him with a handgun shooting rubber bullets in his already bruised back.

"Could you please stop torturing this poor Kamijou. I don't want to die before graduating. My parents would be ashamed." His lungs were on fire and grunts of pain were regularly leaving his mouth, only for his laughing pursuer with a lot more stamina to answer.

"Come on you've told me you were done five laps ago. I'm just making you more honest with your limit." And so Kamijou kept on running away already cursing his decision to join Judgement, such misfortune.

After running five more laps he was then instructed to do a variety of exercise. Those ranged from push-ups, sit-ups, squats, dips. The whole ordeal was once again motivated by his teacher's extreme "support".

Once all that had been witnessed and recorded he had one last obstacle to overcome. He had been dragged in the long jump sand pit for the evaluation of his combat ability. Touma as the previous chapter had shown, knew his way around a street fight. While he probably couldn't beat up twenty thugs all by himself he was still no slouch. However in front of him stood a veteran member of Anti-Skill with military training and she was definitively in top shape.

Once they were both clad in protective equipment to avoid seriously harming each other, they both took a few steps to distance themsleves from one another.

The second before she gave off the signal that they could start, Touma decided to go aggressive in order to display the best of his capabilities. He immediatly took a step forward but his teacher, similarly to him charged low and -as he hadn't built it up- ignored his punch in order to grab his legs. She then raised him above the ground, before hurling him in the sand in front of her.

As he tried to roll away Touma received a well-placed kick to the stomach. He tried to stand up, once on his knees, he received another blow from his teacher. This time it hadn't enough strength to move him and he blocked the leg, feeling proud of himself.

Yomikawa then went closer and caught him by the collar ready to throw him once more to the ground. Only this time Touma to grabbed her chest plate and push"e the opponent away from him while he lowered himself as much as possible.

With that, his teacher was forced to let go of him and take a step back. This was the window of opprtunity for our protagonist to spring up and connect his gloved fist with the helmet of his opponent. While the distance only allowed him to glance the headgear he had come close, too close. He was once more solidly grabbed this time by the arms before being thrown on the ground. However this time his teacher decided to sit atop of his back, join both of his hands despite his best effort to resist, grab both of his wrist with one hand -making Kamijou feel like he'd get both of those crushed- and started to choke him with her other arm.

"I yield, I yield." Were the coughed up words coming out of Touma's mouth. The poor boy felt like he would pass out any second from now.

"Ah, it'll teach you to challenge your teacher." The demon of a woman then started to laugh. Not only was she displaying her content with her own victory and Kamijou's misfortune but she was also clearly ignoring the fact that she had initiated the fight.

"That's unfair, how can you be so strong. It's bullshit there's no way a human being can do that. Are you a cyborg? or did you get drugged with a super-serum?" His teacher smiled smugly before patting her biceps.

"That's all military training. I won't bore with the details but I essentially served in special forces before becoming a PE teacher, I might as well be amongst the hundred thousand strongest normal humans on the planet." The boast might or might not have been a slight exaggeration but seeing the result it was clear that wherever they trained Yomikawa, they did it good.

"Don't worry, I won't give you legionnaire training so you shouldn't die during an exercise..." She had spoken those world with a smile but Touma got really scared thinking about what she could put him through if he pissed her off. And with his misfortune that would definitively end up happening. The boy started to think about writing his will.

"Well anyway, Can I go home now, because I feel like my guts, neck, wrists, and legs are on fire." Yomikawa gave him a perplexed look, as if not understanding why that would be before shaking her head.

"Well actually, you'll start as a consultant for another Judgement branch for a week. That will give me the time to prepare the paperwork, and give you the time to find some people to work with. They're the girls who you met the other day." Kamijou just gave up and, with a sigh, dragged his hurting legs to wherever his teacher wanted him to go.

* * *

When Kuroko asked to have the gentleman from two days ago integrated in Judgement, she had done mostly as a way to help with the 101st branch total lack of personnel. She hadn't really thought about the consequences he would face. Seeing him bruised and battered, clearly in pain while Yomikawa had a smug expression, made her felt a tinge of pity for our protagonist.

"What exactly happened to him? Did he get run over by a truck or something?" Uiharu's voice was filled with concern however Yomikawa simply puffed her -impressive- chest with pride.

"I had to push him for the exam. I made sure he'd get decent scores. I'd be ashamed if one of my student failed a physical evaluation." It would have sounded really heartwarming to the group if their future colleague didn't looked like he was dead on his feet.

"Well, I hope he'll be done with his recovery before going to the field." That poor sweet Uhiaru had no idea that he was probably here to start under the supervision of their Branch.

"He must have had time to catch his breath. If he complains or bothers you, don't hesitate to kick him a bit. He's the newbie here, don't let him forget that." She was somewhere between stern and playful that visibly left the high-schooler scared for his life.

Shirai sighed knowing that the afternoon was probably going to be a roller coaster anyway. The pig-tailed Tokiwadai student decided to make quick work of formalities before she could drag her new junior outside.

"My name is Shirai Kuruko, I'm pleased to meet you." She bowed respectfully, displaying the high class etiquette befitting of a Tokiwadai student and making her second favorite partner swoon a bit before said partner introduced herself.

"I'm Uhiaru Kazari, if you have any question, don't hesitate to ask it." A quick thank exited the boy's lips before the oldest member of the branch introduced herself.

"I'm Mii Konori, I'm the one who runs this place. Tthere's a fourth member in this branch but she's never here so you probably won't meet each other." Kuroko thought about Konori's friend and reluctantly agreed that this wouldn't be an issue if they skimmed over it.

"Kamijou Touma, nice to meet you all. I'm ready to start my formation." Hearing his approval Kuroko decided that she would drag him on patrol where she'd show him the ropes. She took a look to the street outside and calculated the path in the eleventh dimension. Once her math was done, she grabbed his right hand and activated her ability.

Or at least that's what she tried to do but nothing happened. Both of the students stared at each other in confusion.

"What's going on?" asked the spiky haired boy, perplexed as to why the middle school student would grab his arm.

"That's my line, why can't I teleport us." She tried to activate her ability on a pen but it refused to respond either.

"Oh well, I've got this ability in my right hand, it cancel anything supernatural I touch with it. That might be why your ability isn't working." Every head turned toward the boy, disbelieving that such a weird ability might exist.

"So you mean that once you grab an esper, their ability stop working." The question came from Yomikawa who was clearly interested in the declaration and applications of such thing.

"Yes, essentially, that means we'll have to walk sorry…" he gave an apologetic bow to the teleporter who decided to let go of his hand and simply walk toward the door.

"If you can cancel a level 4 ability why did you say that you were a level 0" She opened the door before waving to her colleague and closing it behind her.

"Well, it doesn't have any application and I'm not generating any AIM field. Presumably because of it so System Scan list me as a level 0." Kuruko nodded, she had seen her roommate and it was clear that the effect of a truly powerful ability were easily noticeable and impossible not to notice.

"Anyway, the first thing you have to know about Judgement, is more of an ideological point. It's what drives us. You have to remember that no matter how much authority you're given, there is no forgetting what you're getting it for, the people of Academy City. Their interest is what you're fighting fot. Even if it's not pleasant or fair."

The boy had a distant look, as if thinking deeply about what she just said. reading a little bit further on his face, she could see that he was clearly conflicted about something, She couldn't think that someone who answered sincerely to Uiharu and Konori's questions the way he did could go against what she just said and do it so openly. But his rebuttal came pretty quickly and in a way that made sense :

"I'm not sure I can promise you to do that. I'm getting in a lot of trouble. But it's mostly because of a selfish reason, I can't bear to see the people around me hurt or unhappy. For this reason I might end up fighting a thousand people. Perhaps just to protect one smile." He looked in the distance clearly torn between his ideals and what she just said.

"Well, if that can help you make your mind, people who break the law generally act against their best interest. They're harming a society that they need to survive since anarchy is not viable -just ask Somalia-. However if you think the law and society are harming themselves by harming innocent individuals that would otherwise bring something good to the table. Then it becomes your duty to break the law." Kuruko felt anxious encouraging such action. However it was pretty rare to see people misguidedly ganging up on a non-existing issue so she was most likely giving useless reassurance.

"Thanks, I didn't expect to receive such good advice from you." Never mind, he was just a freaking idiot. He might end up doing that kind of mistakes.

"Do you mean to say that I don't look reliable Kamijou. Be careful of what you might imply. I'm not the one who's covered in bruises." She gave him her best sadist expression and the boy limped faster. As if that would give him any kind of safety from the teleporter's wrath.

"I'm sorry ma'am please don't pay any attention to what this poor Kamijou says, you look extremely wise and somehow manage to be ten times wiser." Kuruko gave him another death glare before letting him off the hook. His apology -no matter how exaggerated- was proof that she got her point across. And so began her patrol.

Kuroko, despite her extremely scientific minded nature and general skepticism was starting to think supernatural forces beyond esper powers were conspiring against the ordinary high-school student she was mentoring.

In the span of three hours he managed to trip on a can, get a flower pot falling on his shoulder from the second stories -she had to teleport some small shards of pottery out of his arm before treating him with judgement's medical equipment- and got doused in meat sauce. The last one not only got him burned but also had all the district's dogs trying to gnaw on him.

If one was to add this up with whatever Yomikawa did to motivate him during his exam, he was having what anyone would probably qualify as one of the worst day of their life. But he kept brushing it off, saying that with his luck that was normal. The laws of probability were probably getting twisted like rubber in order to accommodate such misfortune.

However she also had to admit Touma was a gentleman full of goodwill who really tried to help. He didn't hesitate to pick up trash, climb to trees, and dive in a river fully clothed to pick up a drowning student.

She could only commend his reactiveness -even if he often forgot that he was with a teleporter- and she found herself admiring the earnestness behind his previous words. He was really ready to do anything to preserve others smiles. Whether it was his pride, his injuries, his discomfort or the danger of hurting himself, none of that seemed able to dent his determination.

Kuruko decided reward those efforts and to pick up pastries on the way back. After three hours of hard work, the duo, now linked by the bonds of colleagueship were acclaimed as heroes when arriving with the much appreciated sugar the squad craved.

**AN : I intentionally wanted to write this fic to have more interaction between the different factions but I also want to showcase Touma becoming a real fucking leader and actually having the logistic and emotional support our boi deserve; but then I realized that he had to get training from a professional so I expanded on Yomikawa back story to have her as a former spec-ops (I'll also have it tie in with her reluctance to use weapons against children)**

**I feel like if Kuruko wasn't competing with him for Mikoto's affections, she'd be good friend with Touma, of course knowing that he's (involuntarily) seducing her will strain their relationship. Her monologue is a way for me to reconcile the fact that Judgement is a peacekeeping force who's supposed to bend to the will of the masses and the law with Touma's ideology that he'd fight anything to protect a single smile. While both seem incompatible there's a point where they meet each other and it's the idea of Karma. AKA the idea that you exist as a subset of the world and that harming another part is harming the whole of it including you and vice-versa. This Buddhist idea is present in Japan so it's pretty likely that both Touma and Kuruko got a least a little bit influenced it and can use its logic to reconcile the two visions.**

**Now bonus question for the reviewers, where do you think Yomikawa served, a guess by person allowed winner gets internet cookie.**


	3. Chapter 2: Obtaining a secretary

I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I spent my weekend at my grandparent's place and had forgotten to take the docs with me

About the reviews

**Animan 10: Thanks for the review, I'm a huge fan of your work, I also liked how you did the introduction of Judgement Touma, so please don't be too hard on yourself or else most of us will feel like idiots. I had to rewrite the thing at least four times before I was satisfied with it so I'm glad to see it's neither too short or dragged out. **

**About your first critique I sampled a bunch of text from my mother tongue and English and realized that you had a point, while I can hear my family use a ton of proposition in one sentence it's nigh inexistent in English. So rewrote it in better English and you shouldn't see any sentences with foreign grammar.**

**For your second critique, Level 0 ability can manifest but not be used (ie: Mothoaru's auto rebirth). So when shown that indeed it's absolute and Touma can and will very much make use of it, it'll provoke the reaction. I just wanted to hold back the 'WTF dude you're weird' effect for a bit and have him as a normal member of Judgement at first**

**Fencer29: You're right about that, they met somewhere in June according to the Wiki. However Kuruko has yet to put a face on her Onee-sama's "boyfriend", so Touma's safe from her wrath(for now). In cannon she discover who he is in the park after stealing form the vending machine but here it'll be much earlier. **

**As for the syntax, again same apologies, I hope you'll pardon my earlier French (pun intended) and forget my previously un-English work (I rewrote the first two chapters). You should feel the difference reading this one. Again, sorry for the earlier inconvenience.**

**And for the JSDF part that's what I initially wanted to go for but seeing as while competent they don't have the same cultural background and reputation of whatever I'm thinking. And they also lack the potential further story ramifications -we rarely have actors involved in the plot that aren't in AC or outside of Japan- so you'll have to see (I let a hint in the previous chapter)**

**Guest: sorry about not answering your previous comment, I didn't see it (don't hesitate to post it twice if I don't, it's not bothering anyone). Thanks for the precision on names, kinda dumb on my part. I don't know how I'll tie up the romantic loose ends but it's probably not going to be with Yomikawa or a harem sorry.**

July 15th. Touma had been once again dragged to the training ground by Yomikawa for more 'physical conditioning'. He could have complained for hours about it but he didn't had the time for it. He had to go to the Judgement office to pursue training. But that in itself wasn't a problem. He had agreed and as a serious and mature teenager, he knew better than to think he would escape any responsibility before giving his consent. His thoughts hadn't changed since then.

However he still harbored immense regrets in his heart about his current predicament. He didn't believe in some form of higher power -not a lot of people did in the City of Science- but if it existed, it was clearly demanding his attention.

There was no other explanation for the fact that the desk he had decided to use broke for no apparent reason. In addition to that, the brand new air conditioning stopped working above the only other free desk which was situated just behind his new colleague's computer.

With that pile of misfortunes, he found himself being slowly cooked like some kind of meat dish during a barbecue by the Goalkeeper's Computer. He probably knew what being a skewer felt like with how the chair he sat on was digging in his still bruised back.

Uiharu had been teaching him to fill, classify and send reports. Unlike Kuroko who took a more direct approach to her lesson by basically throwing him in the water and hope he'd figure out how to not sink -well he had ended up in the water but it wasn't Kuruko's doing- the girl with the flowery headband went for a more step by step approach. She guided him along the various parts, adding her own anecdotes and the why behind some of what she taught him.

Kamijou mused as to where those two's different approach came from. Were paperwork and patrolling matters that were respectively cartesian and instinctual, and therefore demanded a different kind of thinking? Or was it a mark of the two friend's different personalities and approach to problem solving?

He could basically separate his paperwork between, the urgent or trivial, whether it demanded people to be restrained by Anti-Skill or not, whether it involved esper powers or not, then the type of incident, the people present and whether immediate restraining of the suspect had been decided. In three hour he had filled eight pages of his notebook

She then ranted to him about the various exception to those general guidelines. For example when nobody filed a complaint there would still be a filed report but it would only be available when an actual complaint from the city, a school or a person was made towards one of the participants. Touma dreaded to think about how many of those were at his name.

The massive headache he felt as he tried to soak up all the intricacies of the protocol kind of made him understand why Judgement training took so long. Rushing it like he did was probably a bad idea but the urgency with which Yomikawa wanted him to join Judgement meant that he was to do those four months of training in minimal time.

Then, after working for longer than one should, he started to feel like he might melt under the heat of the room. The barbecue analogy being now vividly flashing in his mind, he weighed his options. A minute of deliberation had him finally deciding to ask his other tiny teacher about taking a break

"Can I go out for a bit, I don't think I can think for more than five minutes in this heat." He had used his best pleading tone. His voice was conveying almost as much desperation as he felt. After an instant of considering letting him suffer some more his mentor sighed before waving her hand and answering.

"Go get the both of us something to drink. I'll take some iced tea and you get yourself whatever you need. It's on me." She mercifully handed him three hundred yens and he left for the nearest vending machine. It was somewhere in a nearby park if his excellent memory was anything to go by.

As he walked down the streets he started to think about who he could ask for help. He knew that if he were to ask, his two best friends Motoharu and Aogami would try to help him to run his own branch. Key word here being try, in the end the both (three if he was being honest) of them were unlawful, mischievous punks. The duo was in fact most likely no need to be arrested than to solve any problem. And that was in a best case scenario where they wouldn't actively try to sabotage him for some cheap laughs.

His thinking had only given him Fukiyose -and considering the Iron Wall girl's violent tendencies and short temper it was a pretty weak one- as a potential candidate when he reached the vending machine, only to see a person who was already there. They were trying to use their esper ability on the machine to steal drinks or money, if not both. He called the woman(?) out on her criminal activity.

"Stop right there, I'm affiliated with judgment, you shouldn't use your power to steal." The esper turned, only to reveal the face of the boy from the alleyway three days ago.

"You're the dude from the alleyway. So you're judgement, go figure." Touma scratched the back of his head, embarassed.

"Well, technically I'm not part of it yet. I kinda got dragged in the profession because of our last meeting. Apparently they're short on personnel and my performance was well received enough." The white boy raised an eyebrow toward Touma, clearly intrigued with him before speaking up

"Why the fuck did you help me anyway? It clearly didn't go well for you and even if you did nothing those fuckers would probably have ended up harming themselves by attacking me..." The spiky haired boy gave a confused look. He didn't really knew why his reason mattered, or if he even needed one. He simply decided to shrug off the thing

"It's no big deal, I did what anyone else would have done In this situation. Do you need a reason to help another person anyway?" and their eyes met at that moment.

* * *

Accelerator was Academy City's strongest esper. The pale youth had white hair, red eyes and a scrawny build. Usually, he didn't really managed to intimidate anyone until he started to throw trucks at supersonic speeds. Therefore it was commonplace for him to meet a certain amount of people who either wanted something from him or take his spot as the number one.

Spiky hair was neither of those and that left the number one dumbfounded. On one hand, using his ability allowed him to read the various vectors emitted by the other's brain activity. It confirmed that whatever word he spoke, it involved no fiction and only memories. On the other hand it went against what he recalled from that night.

Whatever they did to his brain during his stay at the Special Ability Institute it had greatly enhanced his already massive calculative ability and given him perfect memory. Sadly it was before people stopped using his name, only calling him by his epithet.

Anyway, he could perfectly recall everything in small details and nowhere did the assholes in the alleyway seemed like anything but a pain in the ass.

Sure the esper, too tired by his previous day, had shut down sound and closed his eyes while the problem literally took care of itself. He then missed the beginning of all that. But when he opened his eyes, instead of seeing a mess of twisted limbs lying on the concrete, he saw a student take his defense. Him, the guy's whose ability made him untouchable. It felt like a joke. One that made you smile and laugh.

To be honest he fled because a test was scheduled. Otherwise he'd have stayed to know what the teen wanted from him. It wasn't research since he seemed too young and not rich enough to be part of any important laboratories. It wasn't fighting him -otherwise he wouldn't have attacked after the other guys-. And apparently, and it wasn't to ask any favor from him -that would have been a first-

No. It was simply a guy with more empathy than common sense who decided to look after everybody's wellbeing. A guy who waged a one man crusade against the world's dickheads stupid enough to let it show in public. It gave off an addicting feeling. The idea that others were ready to fight at least a few morons to let him have some peace stirred something within Accelerator.

He decided to make use of his extremely rusty social skills. After all if he could do mundane conversation, convincing someone else to stick around for an hour or so shouldn't be that hard.

"Well, it's… I appreciate that, oh and the machine is fucking broken, it'll swallow your money, tried to get myself some damn coffee and lost what I paid. I had to use my power to get the drink I bought. Do you want something." The judgment trainee seemed to think about it for a second before asking two drinks and putting the money for them in the machine anyway. "What a fucking goodie two-shoes" thought the white esper.

"Thank you, also can I bother you for a bit. The guys at the branch didn't get your testimony on what happened that night. And some the assholes reported that I attacked them for no reason. If you could say otherwise…" Accelerator smiled internally at the opportunity he had been given before waving the other guy's concerns.

"Such stupidity, I'll do it, shouldn't take too long." The spiky haired youth nodded before giving earnest thanks and apologies.

So they walked through the city, discussing about their respective musical taste and other trivial matters. Before either of them could realize it, they were arriving towards a desert middle school. Once they entered the place, they crossed a few alleyways and went to a classroom that had been reconverted in an office. The room while relatively empty and too spacious had just enough plants and cheap painting to have a bit of an atmosphere.

Then, they were greeted by a middle school brat who asked questions that his new acquaintance answered. He took the opportunity to make himself comfortable in a small couch in a corner of the room while drinking his coffee.

One might think that taking hot drinks in summer would be a bad idea but tea and coffee were ideal to hydrate oneself without amplifying the feeling of heat like one would do once done with a cold drink. Plus he needed that caffeine in order to get through the day since he felt for some reason more and more lethargic lately.

Once the two members of Judgement were done talking they focused on the Number One. Their attention, surprisingly, wasn't bothering him in the slightest.

"Well I'll try to file the report, erm how do I start it…" the powerless Esper sighed before flipping through a notebook, clearly struggling with his paperwork. A full minute passed before the guy managed to ask his first question.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. What's your name?" The asocial esper cringed and shrugged. He couldn't remember it for his life.

"Don't know. I forgot it. Put in Accelerator that's how I'm registered in the database anyway." The other guy had a kicked puppy look that he badly tried to hide from the albino.

"That's rough, I don't know how I'd deal with it if I forgot something so important about myself." The sentence had been whispered, as if not meaning to be heard but still desperately wanting to convey whatever he said.

After waiting five minutes -that might as well been five hours- for the idiot to be done with his fucking paperwork, Accelerator finally snapped. He took the notebook and started filling the file, making quick work of what Kamijou had made out to be an insurmountable task. The other teen took the file back and, after a quick diagonal reading, passed it to the midget with the flowery headband. He asked for a second opinion and threw the other teen a look that stood somewhere in-between gratitude and admiration.

"I don't suppose you've got time to lose after classes in order to help me with that kind of paperwork, from time to time." Accelerator blinked, he felt like answering yes. Keeping spiky hair close by seemed like a good idea. It was a mix of the resourcefulness, helpfulness and general charisma -he was conscious that it somewhat affected his thoughts- that had been displayed by Touma that made him one of the rare people for whom he could spare a to think about.

He wasn't so foolish as to believe that his esper ability was omnipotent and absolute -yet-. The exhibit A being the fact that he was constantly assaulted by morons and cornered by scientists. He had felt like this problem was an unavoidable constant of his daily life. Fortunately luck seemed to be on his side.

The ten months that he needed in order to complete the level 6 shift and reach absolute power could be spent using the idiot as a distraction for whoever wanted to ruin his days. That would finally get him some fucking peace. If all he had to do in order to be left alone whenever he wanted was to play secretary for Judgment, then the deal was a complete scam in his favor.

"Sure, I'll swing by to do your fucking office to do some desk-work. Though I might call you to deal with pieces of trash sometimes…" Being vague without lying was the most effective way of convincing someone to do something for you. That's how half of the researchers approached him. Of course he tended to ask them to fuck off, but the offers he fell for were usually vaguely worded promises of whatever he lacked in his life.

"Of course, you can count on me for anything. I'll be glad to help. Actually I think won't like getting in trouble but I'd probably feel even worse if I let you deal with your problems alone. So I would come whether or not you'd help me with Judgement work. Also are you sure you don't need anything, I'd feel bad if I was to make you work for free." Accelerator had trouble keeping his composure when faced with the paradoxical declaration.

It felt like the stupidest fucking statement that he had heard in the whole year. Saying "I don't need any fucking motivation to go on and help you just ask, oh and don't forget to ask for something to motivate yourself when helping me" was particularly idiotic sentence. How the moron had managed to say it straight-faced was beyond the first-ranked's comprehension. It was kind of like hypocrisy but he held everybody else at a lower standard than himself instead of the reverse.

"Just fucking drop it. If I find a good idea of a payment, I'll take it from you." Just like that Accelerator had found a place for himself in the too big office. Feeling like being productive for once, the first ranked took out his phones and looked up the general design and principles behind air coolers. After half an hour of reading he walked out of the room and went on to steal a bunch of tools in a supply closet. Then, after coming back to the room he went on to fix the broken appliance in silence.

Once he was done and thanked profusely by his newest acquittance, an alarm clock rang from his phone, reminding him of the imminent experiment he had to participate in.

He excused himself out of the room and walked around the city, enjoying the rare moment of quiet and peacefulness he was allowed to have. The site for this night's experiment was an alleyway somewhere in district seven.

A quick look at the map he had memorized placed the test not far away from the school he just came out of. He wondered whether the Tree Diagram had predicted where he'd hang out, before dismissing the possibility. It was pure good luck that he had met his meat shield, and he'd have no other reason to hang out at some shitty middle school. Nothing about that could have been predicted by Academy City's supercomputer.

In less than a minute, the first clone arrived at his the site. Je was supposed to take on ten of them at once. He wondered if the network that shared their memories created a cumulated experience. Maybe the dolls aged twenty-thousand, well more like twelve thousands now- times faster because of it.

"Wow, the trash is sure early. Do you really want to die that badly ? Because if it's the case then maybe throwing yourself off a bridge is a better idea." The clone gave him a cold and emotionless look.

"The interruption of all my vital functions wouldn't damage my mind since the Network would save her data, says Misaka trying to correct her opponent's flawed logic." No luck meeting anything but a doll this time too apparently.

"Wow, you know most of the trash I have to fight is stupid since they're challenging me. But even they are smart enough to save their own skin. Are you guys sure you can pose a threat to me if you're that retarded." The fights were a fucking pain in the ass, he couldn't wait for it to end. "maybe teaching some common sense to the sisters would reduce the number of combat scenario I'd need to endure" thought the esper.

Then as the clock stroke 9 pm precisely, eight grenades were spread around him. Other sisters had apparently been lying in ambush, trying to get in some kind of sneak attack.

Shrapnel's flied through the air and, had they been directed toward anyone else, they would have torn them to pieces. In fact the sister in front of him was shredded by the suicidal attack. She ended up looking more like a piece of meat in a butcher shop one would have dropped in a pool of blood.

Accelerator however was completely unharmed by the attacks, the heat, the shrapnel, all had been headed toward him because of the directions in which they spread. Those directions and the magnitude of those could be modeled with vectors. His ability allowed him complete control over those vectors. It then had the effect anyone who understood the previous statement would expect. The shrapnel, heat, blood and fleshy bits headed toward him came in contact with his AIM field. Only for his personal reality to take effect and whatever had been coming toward him was given the completely opposite direction.

The Sisters who had been lying in ambush -apparently on some rooftops- didn't wait to see the result of their attacks before throwing a bunch electricity toward him. They were apparently still testing the effects of his vector shield. Accelerator himself didn't knew how far it could be strained. He could probably get a nuke thrown in his face and he would come out unscathed. Brute force or large quantity of attacks had never been a problem until now. They would need to find more creative way to kill him if they wanted him to complete the experiment.

The attacks thrown at the number one reflected once again, striking most of the dolls who attacked him. Some of those clones simply fell from their vantage points and ended up killing or incapacitating themselves during the fall.

He finished the sisters at his level quickly by crushing their skulls under his feet before propelling himself to the rooftops. Tonight's experiment had begun.

**AN : I find it fascinating that Kuroko is both the skeptic 'science can explain all' down to earth one and the "I'm gonna wing it" who's good at dealing with the unforeseen. While Uiharu is the more romantically minded who's susceptible to fantasize but is also the type to use logical problem solving and plan ahead, that's an interesting aspect of their dynamic that's underlying but never touched upon. Give me your thoughts and opinions on that, if I see good ideas I'll ask if I can expand on that somewhere down the line **

**I wanted Touma's first words to accel being "stop right there criminal scum" but I didn't want to break the immersion for the sake of those good oblivion memes. Also in case his internal monologue didn't made it clear, Accelerator doesn't see Touma as a friend (yet) but as a tool used in order to make himself more comfortable in his everyday life. I can't imagine the guy being able to enjoy anything that isn't reading some heavy object at home if he gets jumped by scientists, clones and thugs every time he goes outside. Meeting a dude who can literally take on half of those problems and provide the good company he craves is something he'd jump on if my understanding of his character is anything to go by (plus he doesn't have the massive guilt complex because of the clones yet). However that doesn't stop him from keeping on with the experiment and being mess (for now).**


	4. Chapter 3: Fall and Rivalry

**About the reviews:**

**Fencer 26: I was referring to Kuruko but now that I think about it, between Index and Birdway teaching him magic, Komoe school subjects, and now that I've made it so, Uiharu and Kuroko cop stuff, it looks like Touma is doomed to be schooled by lolis.**

**And yeah the pacing and logistic of level 6 shift is pretty weird. I mean, Accelerator kills misaka 9982 on august 15th and gets his ass handed to him on July 21th. So it appears he's roughly killing less than ten clones a day and has therefore been at it for three years? The whole thing would take roughly 5 years and a half. Having all clones ready halfway through seems weird on a logistic terms. But then again, the clone had a second purpose in case the project failed.**

**lovecrazyhedgehog: I'm happy I sufficiently hinted. And as for why I think he fought multiple Misakas there's the post-credit scene in an episode of Railgun where we see Misaka 9983 tasked with cleaning a room filled with corpses from the Sisters. So I doubt they filled at least four different rooms until there was too many corpses. But since it's ambiguous you might consider it bad interpretation form my part**

July 16th. Touma had begun his training for Judgement two days ago -Apparently the helpful actions and difficulty he faced before didn't count-. So Yomikawa thought that it would be a good idea to start with some more complex lessons. Until now all she had him doing was physical exercises that one would see done during a movie's training montage. Except in movies it took five minutes tops, and then whoever was the subject of the montage became super strong.

However he had no such luck. Not only was he tortured for almost two hours every day but it was also exhausting and left all of his body aching without him making any noticeable progress. So he hoped that his training to take a turn for the epic, with secret techniques and other kind of stuff you'd see in shonen manga. Instead he had been thrown around the sand pit like a potato sack to be taught proper falling technique.

Up until now, the spiky haired boy had never known how to fall. It was evidenced by the quantity of bruises he suffered every day from that kind of incidents. And now that he had been taught how to do it, he hoped that he wouldn't get too much opportunities to use this newfound knowledge.

Apparently, as long as his center of mass was lowering he was falling. Therefore, rolling to the ground was an effective way to limit the damage he did to himself. Another thing he had to learn was to be especially careful about the vulnerable parts that he could hurt when falling. Notably the back of his head that he had to protect when falling on his back under all circumstances.

Little did he know that his hopes not to use it would be crushed nearly instantly.

He had ordered his lunch at a nearby restaurant where he wanted to eat alongside Tsuchimikado and Aogami.

"I swear, if you try to tell me one more time that the second brand

"Uhiaru, what do you need from me?" He was particularly clam about the ordeal, thinking it would be no big deal. That contrasted with the urgency felt in his senior's voice.

"Kamijou-san, There's a bank robbery in front of the crepe stand, three streets away from your position. There are three unspecified suspects, we need immediate back-up." And so Touma left his stuff and barely eaten meal to his two friends to rush to the destination.

"I'll be here in a second, be careful." He placed his phone in his pocket and started to sprint as fast as his aching legs would allow him to.

Just when he arrived on the street an something blew up under his feet. The massive impact flipped a nearby car and threw him a few meters above the ground.

Learning those falling skill had indeed paid off really fast.

Misaka Mikoto had had her system scan this morning, her ability had been tested, recorded and analyzed by machines and researchers of all kind. That had been pretty exhausting in itself but, as soon as she left the School garden, people attempted to mug her.

The uniform she wore clearly indicated that she was a Tokiwadai lady. That meant that she potentially had a lot of money on her, however it also meant that she was a high level esper. Even someone like Kuroko was tough enough to wipe the floor with all of them. So taking the chance to fall on one of the school's two level five was pretty dumb.

She wished the spiky haired idiot was here. Not only wouldn't she have to deal with all that stupidity but she'd also get the chance to settle down their scores.

Mikoto was one of Academy City's seven level five, she was tantamount to an army on her own. Needless to say, she shocked them all in an instant. She used just enough power to not fry anything too important but apparently nobody could resist her ability here.

"Onee-sama, What happened here?" Kuruko, her roommate and underclassman had appeared in the other side of the alley. Apparently someone had contacted Judgement about what was happening here.

"Sorry, Those guys were trying to mess with me, had to zap'em a bit." Her partner simply sighed before going on a rant about why, as a civilian, it wasn't Mikoto's place to deliver justice. Misaka simply let the other girl vent off without paying much attention.

"You're always using excessive amounts of force, I filed paperwork for sixteen broken appliances in four weeks. And even if you're so eager to do Judgement's work anyway, you should go to the nearest station and ask to be trained." The electromaster raised a doubtful eyebrow toward the teleporter.

"I don't think it would be that simple. Aren't the candidate cherry picked amongst honor students." Kuroko grabbed her wrist and started to teleport her around district seven, eager to go on with the day.

"Well you're going to met Uhiaru and she's not that impressive. Yet she's more qualified than you to step in this kind of things." Misaka thought about the statement for a bit.

"Weren't you complaining that she didn't met the physical requirements the other day." Her roommate froze for a second before coughing up.

"Well, the newbie is a level zero, even more normal looking and he's getting training." The younger girl pouted at her senior, clearly upset about her skepticism.

"Besides, if my Onee-sama gets into Judgement, I'll get more opportunities to bond with her. Imagine all the intimacy we could share while leaving all the work to Konori and Uiharu." Mikoto's skin crawled under the perverted stare of her kouhai and she decided to never, ever, under any circumstances join Judgement.

"No, I think I'll pass up that opportunity. Anyway, why did we stop?" Kuroko sighed, filled with despair.

"Well I wanted us to have a snack at this café but a colleague got doused in sauce meant for them. The manager is currently glaring at me. I didn't think they would hold a grudge, guess we'll have to settle for crepe." Kuruko pulled her phone out, probably to contact her friend about their new meeting spot, but a girl waved at her.

Uhiaru had arrived at the restaurant alongside a friend of hers. She wore the same unfamiliar uniform that Mikoto found kind of cute. She had long black hair and was a little bit taller than Kuruko and her friend. A somewhat sour expression could be seen on her face.

"Oh, great. You're there. We can get the introductions done before going." The teleporter turned toward her colleague

"This is Kazari Uiharu, a first year student at Sakugawa middle school." The student with the flowery headband gave a polite bow before speaking up.

"I do Judgement work alongside Kuroko, It's really an honor to meet you" Something akin to admiration illuminated the girl's face and Misaka felt the tiniest bit embarrassed.

"Oh, and I'm Ruiko Saten, a classmate of Uiharu, I'm a level 0 by the way." She had something of a defiant air about her. However the electromaster felt somehow more at ease with the less emotional of the duo.

"I'm Mikoto Misaka. I'm Pleased to meet the both of you." She gave an easy smile before asking Kuroko the directions.

And so, they went on with their afternoon. All in all, even as a level five, her days tended to be pretty normal and today was no exception. Until it was.

Mikoto had been enjoying the company of the other three girls when an explosion went out. The nearby bank had its door blown off and three wannabe thieves came out.

Shirai had instructed her to sit this one out and the older esper intended to do so. Even then it wasn't hurting anyone to help look for civilians who had been lost prior to the robbery. When Saten had fought with one of the robber to force him to release the kid he wanted to take hostage, Misaka had been extremely close to just snap and put an end to the incident.

When her newest friend had been hit, the railgun's goodwill towards the robbers had plummeted in the negatives.

"Kuroko, I'm sorry but now it's personal. Don't complain for what I'm about to do." She then closed her eyes and started to calculate a lorentz force. She flipped a coin and equations defining the direction and speed the coin would take appeared in her head. When the coin finally landed in front of her hand, she used her power and all hell broke loose. The arcade token accelerated at three times the speed of sound. The noise that came with it was akin to thunder and would have anyone running

After the split second it took to reach the fleeing car the robber had gotten in, the impact blew both the road and the vehicle. It additionally blew a certain spiky haired boy high in the air.

Shocked that the previously clear road had someone on it, the level five let out a noise of audible distressed confusion.

The unknown figure managed to land with a roll on the macadam that looked particularly painful.

"Such misfortune" The dust and distance made it pretty difficult to have an idea of who that was based on appearance. However the voice was pretty easy to recognize. Misaka had heard the boy it belonged to complain and whine a whole month since they first met. The Idiot -she didn't knew his name- had tried to help her when she had been harassed by some petty thugs a month ago. On that day she had first fired a blast of electricity to teach him a lesson about badmouthing stranger. That had not done anything and ever since then, she had wanted to overcome the mysterious level five ability her opponent possessed.

They had met sporadically all throughout District seven and he had always ran away from her challenges. Not once had she managed to land a hit on him. And as it was a dirty and unexpected attack that hadn't done him much damage the most recent railgun shot didn't count.

She didn't knew why she tried so hard. Maybe she still resented his words about her being an immature kid and wanted him to take it all back. Maybe she saw him as an obstacle that marked her strength, like one of those bonus boss that you fought only to prove to yourself how good you were. Or maybe it was just because he was a good outlet for the pent up frustration that came with the expectations placed on her. Or maybe it was a combination of all three.

Anyway, accidentally meeting him now posed a dilemma. Did making sure that her friends enjoyed a nice afternoon came first ? Or should she follow the feeling of her blood boiling at the thought of beating that Idiot to the ground? While she pondered Shirai teleported.

"Kamijou-san, are you alright? What are you doing here." He spoke to the now sitting high-school student who was rubbing his back.

"I don't think I broke anything. And Uiharu called me for back up, but it seems like you've got everything under control…" He seemed awfully casual about his unexpected flight, but the most shocking -pun non intended- part for the Level 5 was the interaction between her friend and her sworn enemy.

"Do you two know each other or something?" Electricity crackled around her, adrenaline was still pumping in her blood and the itch to fight wasn't scratched. Yet the situation needed some explanation before they got to the brawling part.

"Well, he's the newbie I've told you about. How do you know him." Misaka blinked, of course the idiot was the wannabe hero that Kuroko had arrested a few days ago. How she couldn't have made the connection was beyond her.

"He's the moron I've been trying to beat all month." Realization dawned upon Kuroko before she teleported above the guy.

"You ape, How dare you! If you don't explain everything now, I swear I'll teleport enough needles inside your stomach to make it look like a hedgehog" A dropkick to the back of his head knocked down the spiky haired boy once more

"Why are you aggressing me now?" his voice had a tinge of annoyance but no animosity could be heard behind his words

"You've been seducing my Onee-sama. I won't let anyone defile her, even it's you." She then started to whack her mentee with her handbag.

"What are you talking about? Ouch, I've doing my best to get away from Biri-Biri I swear ! Besides she's just a kid with a nasty personality, there's no way I'm interested in her." The last comment elected a response from the interested party. An electric response, which as the rest of her attack was negated by the boy blocking.

"Hey, you could have hurt someone with that!" Mikoto fumed at his words, she had tried to take him down for a month and he had yet to fight her seriously.

"How did you do that?" Saten was the most reactive amongst the group as she had not seen Kamijou's strange esper abilities before.

"Well, I don't really know. I just touched it with my right hand and it stops working." The black haired girl then helped the boy up.

"Are you the erasing boy. It's a pretty popular urban legend online about a spiky haired student that can nullify any esper power with his right hand. He supposedly goes around at night and beat up other espers who misuse their powers, some even think he's the sixth ranked level 5." The definitively not-a-level-five dusted himself before answering the younger girl.

"Well, I have no idea that this kind of urban legend existed, so I'd say no." Mikoto felt her eyes roll so hard she could have sworn that she caught a glimpse of her gray matter.

"Of course that's you, you moron. Anyway, fight me, properly this time. Or else I'll hack into your school records to get you kicked out." A terrified expression appeared on her rival's face

"You're bluffing, you don't even know which school I attend to!" She was indeed bluffing. She might be craving for that fight but she still had a sense of justice. However she didn't need to act on her threat if she was convincing enough.

"No, but I can ask Kuroko very nicely. Once that's done, you'll be recorded as the worst delinquent in the history of Academy City." A look of resignation and the loudest and most visible sigh were his only response for a long moment before he finally spoke up.

"Fine, I'll take you on seriously. But can we just do that somewhere else, I don't want an accident to make any else's day as bad as mine." The third ranked easily agreed to his request.

And so they walked a little bit around district seven until they reached an artificial riverbed. The space was wide and nobody was around to disrupt. Misaka had even a morale advantage in the form of her own cheerleading team. Apparently -since Anti-Skill had arrived to take care of the robbers- Uiharu, Saten and Kuroko had nothing better to do than encourage her.

"Are you sure you're ready for that. I won't hold back on you." The Railgun smiled, excitement for the upcoming battle was coursing through her veins

"I don't think that will improve you chance anyway." And, with that final taunt, she fired the first shot. A spear of electricity formed in front of her bangs before firing at light speed toward the student, only for it to be blocked by his right hand.

"Well, it doesn't look like you're winning today either." Misaka ignored his comment and started to gather iron sand that was bound to be found in the riverbed.

"Oh don't worry I have a few other tricks up my sleeve." And with a simple usage of electromagnetism, a sword made of iron sand formed inside her hand. She applied her power to make it vibrate and it became as dangerous as a buzz saw.

"Wow, isn't using weapons cheating." A satisfied smile made it was on Mikoto's face.

"I made it using my powers. Be careful you might get hurt a little if you get touched by it." And with that, she charged.

Once she had gotten in close quarter, she realized that she wasn't the only one with attack opportunities. As she swung her sword around, he twisted his body in order to avoid her hits. Then, when her strike was over he threw a small knee strike in order to push her back. The hit had no momentum behind it but it still meant that he was doing better than her

"Time to change strategies." Thought the ace of Tokiwadai before extending her sword like a whip and throwing it in her opponent's back.

"Dodge this one." And as such she could almost feel her imminent win. If he had been more aggressive, he might have had a chance at taking her down. But now that she had time to set up her traps he was as screwed as they came

Surprisingly he struck the sword with his right hand, and once again, her attack was nullified. The force she had put in her blade vanished and it crumbled inside her hands.

"Can I go to class now." The dismissive attitude that he had was getting on her nerves and she decided to go for a more aggressive move. While the iron sand was in the air, she took control of it and started to attack him from all angles. None of it seemed to catch him off guard, he even sometimes reacted as soon as she made the decision.

"maybe his power is related to electromagnetic forces?" was the hypothesis that went through Misaka's mind as she approached the student for a sneak attack.

While she had him twisting around to face away from her, she grabbed his right hand, ready to fry him until he was down.

Or at least that's what she tried to do. Reality was sadly disappointing. Her esper power was gone. She suddenly went from being the most powerful person in her school, someone able to throw trucks like they were tennis ball, to being a normal person. She suddenly became an average fourteen years old without any real mean to fight back against the more powerful high school student.

He tried to raise his fist and she cowered. Unbeknownst to Misaka something flashed in Touma's eyes. An image of another student, with a similar uniform, a similar expression and similar hairs. Seeing this he froze.

"Well that's awkward, she looks too much like Mitsuari for me to hit her, better pretend she beat me." And so he did. Badly.

Anger filled the third-ranked as she saw the boy attempt a poor excuse for acting, mocking her and her weakness. She blew up in his face, and as always he ran away cursing his misfortune. As always she chased him, demanding him to recognize her.

**I forgot to precise earlier but while the anime adaptation of railgun is excellent I'll gloss over the anime filler (except for silent party because I have a rather good idea that needs it) I'll mostly stick to the manga. Tell me what anime only arcs or short stories would you like to see and I'll add it either as bonus either as parts of the thing.**

**I found a way to kinda fix the behavior of Touma. He's never shown hesitation to punch an opponent in the face, be it pregnant women, babies, old, powerful, weak ect… So that seems weird for him to hold back on Misaka unless she evokes a particular experience/memory. In this case maybe another, vulnerable, flat chested, brown-haired girl in a Tokiwadai uniform… And I kinda feel like crap for torturing him so much.**


End file.
